What's your tax refund look like? (US Mamas)

[cappuccinosmom]

Curious...

Ours came out to be $5K more than usual. Only 10% of that is an actual refund of federal income taxes we paid through with-holding. The rest of it is EIC, and Child Tax Credit (3 kids=$3K), and the new "Making work pay" thingy.

A couple of other people I've talked to have mentioned that theirs is quite a bit larger than previous years too, and for similar reasons.

When I think of the government sending me a check that big... It makes me want to just put the money in savings in case either I made a mistake, or TurboTax did. It feels...odd.

[Purple*Lotus]

Mine is invisible. I had to pay

[PenelopeJune]

Mine was about $1500 more than usual. I have had the same tax lady for years now, and I totally trust that she didn't make any mistakes. (Of course I always check it over, but it always looks good to me.)

I was SO glad it was more than usual though, because most of our furniture got ruined and we have to buy new stuff, so we really needed it. It cannot come fast enough!

[rhiOrion]

Ugh. Ours was about 2,000 less than usual. We made WAY more money this year than we ever have before (this was the first full year where DH and I were both working full time).

We also changed our deductions from 0 to 1.

But I thought it would even out pretty well. But we ended up owing $1500 dollars.

Luckily we also got the new homebuyers credit. So we're not getting back the full 8k...but at least we don't actually have to pay.

Baby is coming this year, so hopefully that will help for next year. Plus I think that I, at least, will change my deduction back to 0.

[sunnysandiegan]

Ours was about $1500 more than usual and I know I did our taxes correctly. We'd rather have it in the paycheck than in a lump sum.

ETA: Ours was due to DH's pay decreasing (pay cuts across his firm), our new HSA for 2009, the child tax credit, and the making work pay program. Last year we received $38 back from the Feds, which was perfect in our opinions. (We got a couple hundred back from the state, but our state is whacked and it is impossible to gauge it correctly. We owe them $4 this year. )

For 2010, his pay isn't going back up, but he did receive a lump sum bonus. We can no longer add to our HSA since his company changed insurance to a non-qualifying HDHP (higher deductible than before and does NOT qualify for HSA ). We haven't changed his withholdings, but the amount being withheld is higher than last year (as of Jan 15's check, but all other changes are taking effect with his coming paycheck at the end of Feb, so I am waiting to see how things shake out before asking him to change anything).

[RollerCoasterMama]

It was a weird year and most of STBX's income was non-taxable stipends from the military so they hardly took any out. We JUUUST squeaked by...owe the feds about $500 but getting about $700 back from the state (they refund taxes on military income which is really nice!).

[LeahBoo]

I don't have it set up for them to take anything out, so usually have to pay $300 ish. But this year, there was that new thing, making work pay? or something. So I got a $37 refund.

[kittywitty]

We made the same as last year.

[jeca]

Ours was about the same as its been these last few years. I think it was maybe a few hundred more than last year though. My parents was about the twice the size as usual.

[KristyDi]

We always owe. I'm hoping it will be less this year since this is our first year w/ just DH's income w/ dd and I as dependents.

[cappuccinosmom]

So does nobody get EIC or Child Tax Credit?

[SugarGlider]

We got both... ours was 7328, which is WAY more than normal, it wasn't a mistake My mom is a tax preparer and there were plenty of giant refunds with her clients from the same tax credits you mentioned.

[jeca]

Originally Posted by cappuccinosmom

So does nobody get EIC or Child Tax Credit?

We do not get EIC but we did get the child tax credit. The bulk of my parents money from thid year came because they are now getting credit for my sister beyond in school beyond her first and second year. I think that is new this year.

[lisalulu]

Ours is more this year too. We don't get EIC but do get the child tax credit. I think the making work pay helped us get more but also we paid so much out in medical expenses last year that we actually were able to write some of it off.

[MyTwoAs]

Ours was more this year, even though I increased withholding earlier in the year. We made more but hit the phase out for the child tax credit and so we were only able to claim $200/child (two kids).

[zebra15]

EIC and Child tax credit.... lots of money coming back...

[BetsyS]

Last year, our refund was really high (too high, cause of a mistake from dh's company). So, at the beginning of 2009, I adjusted withholdings. We are getting back $500, which is fine with me.

We don't get EIC, but we get the child tax credit.

[velochic]

Originally Posted by Bunnyflakes

Mine is invisible. I had to pay

Yep, this. We did have to tweak our withholdings once to keep it even. We only had to pay a couple hundred. We try to never get a return and would rather pay.

[Ruthiegirl]

We are getting $650 back from the feds and owe $550 to state. So, we'll end the day with a $100.

That's the way like to have our taxes -- little to no return.

[naturallymommy]

We got less cos of the deployment, but still alot, about 6k